Johannesburg, South Africa — A team of eight specialists leaves Waterkloof Air Force Base near Pretoria early Wednesday to carry out a preliminary survey of flood ravaged Mozambique.
"The team will head for Maputo and Beira to do reconnaissance prior to the deployment of a task force from the South African National Defence Force to assist the people in the flood ravaged areas of Mozambique," Major Louis Kirstein said in a statement Tuesday.
The team will return later tomorrow (Wednesday) to do the final planning for a later deployment.
Kirstein's comments were made in the wake of criticism of the slow response to Mozambiques call for help. Forty people are known to have drowned since the floods began last week.
On Saturday South African President Thabo Mbeki sanctioned an operation to assist Mozambique, but up to now the movement of equipment had been very slow.
"You must understand this is government and you have to operate within certain procedures," explained Ministry of Defence spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi. "We are going through the bureaucracy."
Mkhwanazi said it had taken longer than expected for an official request to come in from the Mozambicans.
He said the deployment of the helicopters would be "within 24 hours" of the return of the reconnaissance team.
Mozambique is bracing for further flooding after the Cahora Bassa dam opened its sleuth gates to preserve its wall. As a result low-lying areas of Tete city, the capital of Tete province have been flooded.
Tomas Mandlate, governor of Tete province, said people in the city were panicking. "The situation is now alarming and we fear this disaster will be similar to that of 1978."
The Zambezi flooded in early 1978, causing about 60 million US dollars worth of damage and affecting some of Mozambique's most fertile land. During that flood, eight of the Cahora Bassa Dam's floodgates were open.
The dam now has four floodgates open and officials worried they may have to release more water.
The dam is currently discharging 7,500 cubic meters of water a second, but water is building up behind the dam wall at 11,000 cubic meters a second.
Dam officials said the situation was critical for the dam, but they were trying to release water slowly to prevent a catastrophe in the Zambezi River basin.
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About 55,000 people in the Mutarara district of Tete have been affected by the flooding. About 15,000 people have sought refuge in government shelters, which are suffering shortages of tents, medicine and chlorine to purify drinking water.
In the neighbouring province of Sofala, about 26,000 people were in five government shelters.
Swamped roads were hampering the delivery of emergency supplies, authorities said. About 400,000 people have been affected by floods that began early this year.
More than 75,000 people have lost their homes and 41 have died, according to official figures. However, the state- owned newspaper Noticias reported Monday that more than 50 had died.
Mozambique is still recovering from devastating floods which last year killed more than 700 people, and wreaked destruction on roads, houses and farmland across the southern and central parts of the country.
